This invention comprises a portable compact microscope for use in examining slides quickly and efficiently.
Presently there is a need in the practice of medicine to provide a better and faster means of diagnosing and treating patients without unduly inconveniencing them. Often during the examination of a patient, a doctor must send samples to the lab for lab tests while the patient waits for the results. The patient must wait in some instances because positive tests might require that treatment of a diagnosed condition begin immediately. Therefore, faster diagnosis would considerably upgrade patient care and treatment.
Such problems are particularly marked and prevalent in the diagnosis and treatment of vaginal infections such as Trichomonas vaginalis and Minilias. In a conventional laboratory setting, after the vaginal walls have been swabbed or scraped to diagnose for such infections, the specimen must be rushed to a lab away from the patient and much time taken to prepare a hanging drop wet mount slide after which the diagnosis is made. During this time-consuming process the patient often must lie uncomfortably in the lithotomy position on the table in the examination room with a speculum in position so that treatment can be started immediately if the diagnosis is positive.
To upgrade patient comfort and care, it would be of utmost benefit to arrive at a rapid but accurate means of diagnosing such infections in the examination room. For such diagnosis, a compact portable microscope holding a wet mount slide would be desirable.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,582,181 issued June 1, 1971 teaches a portable pocket microscope having its own light source so as to be available for usage in a variety of locations. This microscope is in two sections which be press fitted together in a telescopic relationship. A two lens eyepiece is mounted in one tubular section and a two-lens objective, light source and object slide slot are located in the second tubular section. The fitting together of the two tubular sections under pressure produces a telescope arrangement which is elongated and, therefore, not truly compact in nature. This prior art microscope provides a light source which is constant whereas an adjustable light source is to be preferred.